Recommended Reading

November 1, 2018:

Administration Denying Asylum: This article evaluates the power of the President within current law to use an executive order to effectively close the US-Mexico Border. The author offers multiple legal arguments in support of an in opposition to the use of executive orders as proposed by the Trump Administration to deny the migrants currently traveling through Mexico as part of the Honduran/Central American exodus the right to seek asylum in the US.

The Refugee Caravan: In this piece by the New Yorker's Jonathan Blitzer, the root causes and emergence of the refugee crisis in Central America which led to this most recent exodus is explored in an easy-to-understand, relatable manner. Blitzer humanizes the refugees and helps readers understand what the decision to flee was like for many of those traveling with the caravan.

Trump and the Reality at the Border: (From the Center for Migration Studies:) In this op-ed, Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR), writes that President Trump uses “grotesque and inhumane rhetoric” to make the public think that the individuals and families fleeing horrific violence and poverty in Central America are criminals and terrorists coming to harm Americans. In regards to the migrant caravan, President Trump’s “blatant effort to stoke more xenophobia and fear” ignores the fact that the caravan is “mostly ordinary men, women and children — part of a long tradition of families coming to the United States to make their lives better.” Furthermore, Trump’s characterization of the situation at the US-Mexico border is misleading. Although arrests along the border have increased since Trump took office, they are “well below the historic peaks of two decades ago.”